THE FOLLY OF A MOMENT. 69 
have done, and would not depart. Willing to give him time, I left the 
window open, and returned to my bed; but I could not sleep. The 
fresh air from without entering into the room, my drone entered further 
and further, and buzzed about and around. The obstinate and impor- 
tunate guest excited in me an angry feeling, and I started up, deter- 
mined to expel him by main force. A handkerchief was my weapon, 
but undoubtedly I made use of it very unskilfully. I stunned, con- 
fused, and frightened the drone; he whirled round and round in a dizzy 
fit, but thought less than ever of quitting the chamber. My impatience 
increased: I pursued him with greater, with too great impetuosity. He 
fell on the window-sill, and rose no more. 
Was he dead, or stunned? I would not close the window, thinking 
that in the latter case the air might revive him, and he would fly away. 
Meanwhile, by no means satisfied with what I had done, I threw my- 
self on my bed. On the whole, it was his own fault. Why did he 
not escape ? Such was my first reflection ; but afterwards I grew more 
severe in self-judgment, and accused my impatience. So great is the 
tyranny of man, he can endure nothing. Like all kings, this lord of 
creation is impetuous, and at the slightest contradiction breaks out 
into a fury, and kills. 
Very beautiful was the morning; fresh, and yet, by degrees, 
growing almost warm; a happy mixture of temperature, proper to that 
delightful country and that season of the year: it was Normandy, and 
the month of June. The peculiar characteristic of this month, distin- 
guishing it from all those that follow, is, that it gives birth to the 
innocent species which live on vegetable food, but to none of the 
murderous races which need a living prey,—that it breeds flies, but. 
not spiders. Death has not yet begun, and love reigns everywhere. 
All these ideas occurred to me, but proved by no means agreeable ; 
for at this blessed, sacred time, when a universal confidence prevails, 
I had already killed: man alone had broken the peace of God. 
The thought was very bitter. Whether the victim was great or 
small, mattered but little; the dead was always the dead. And it 
was without any serious occasion, without provocation, that I had 
